Monthly Archives: October 2016

We have just acquired this fantastic L.S. Lowry pencil drawing. At 16” x 11”, Child with Doll is an unusually large work on paper. It was drawn in 1968 when Lowry was nearly 80 and is a very powerful image. During the 1960s Lowry concentrated on drawing single figures or groups with an obsessive intensity.

Lowry was reportedly fascinated with dolls, and his cousin May recalled occasions when they played together with dolls as children. Later in life Lowry was to become especially captivated with the ballet Coppelia in which a life like doll, created by a certain Dr Coppelius, exerts a powerful hold over a young villager who falls in love with her.

This drawing has extensive provenance and exhibition history and is illustrated in Mervyn Levy’s 1976 book, “The Drawings of L.S.Lowry, Public and Private”

Just added to our current show – “Going Home” a 6.5″ x 7.5″ pencil drawing by L.S. Lowry. This drawing is originally from the collection of David Carr (1915-1968), a young painter who became a collector of Lowry’s work. The two became very close, and despite their very different ages and backgrounds, the friendship with Carr offered Lowry a new perspective and exposure to the work of the younger generation of artists.

Over a period of years Carr built up a significant collection of Lowry’s paintings and drawings. Many of the Lowry works he bought such as “Home from the Pub”, “The Prayer Meeting” and The Creditors’ Meeting””, featured not crowds but collections or groupings of distinct individuals. In “Going Home”, Lowry has been able to capture great movement in the figures with a few simple pencil strokes. It is easy to see why this drawing appealed to Carr. The next owner of this drawing was the prominent British artist Prunella Clough (1919-1999), it is not known if Carr gave it to her or if she bought it off him.

One of the most popular paintings in our current exhibition is Peter Brook’s large canvas of Hannah Hauxwell Waving Goodbye. Hannah became a celebrity in the 1970s when Granada TV produced a series of progammes on her life at Low Birk Hatt Farm. Peter Brook did over 60 paintings of Hannah and Hannah Hauxwell Waving Goodbye was his favourite. He would never sell it whilst he was alive. Low Birk Hatt recently came up for sale and this article gives more information on Hannah’s story.